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Thread: Hollow body pickup shielding

  1. #1

    Hollow body pickup shielding

    I'm putting together my ES-3 and I am wondering if I need to wrap the bottom of the pickups with the copper tape. I've seen the pickup cavities of solid bodies lined with it but obviously I can't do that with a hollow body.

  2. #2
    Overlord of Music McCreed's Avatar
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    With a pre-manufactured hollow body, it's pretty near impossible to properly shield. If you were building from scratch, there's the option of applying shielding paint to the entire inside, but if it has f-holes, then they will compromise the effectiveness anyway.

    Wrapping the pickups with copper tape isn't going do much good, and possibly only increase the risk of creating a short or damaging a coil wire IMO.

    The best advice I have seen, is to use good shielded cable for all the electronic connections. Like THIS
    Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...

  3. #3
    GAStronomist Simon Barden's Avatar
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    As McCreed says (though his image link leads to a protected page so it can't be seen by us mere mortals).

    You've got humbuckers, so hum will be minimal. Use braided or foil-screened cable for the longer runs and the signals will be as well shielded as they can be. The humbuckers have a grounded metal base plate and a grounded cover (unless you are planning on fitting open coils) as well as being hum-cancelling through design, so any extra shielding for those won't do much.

    The pickup leads are already shielded, so it's the long run from the volume pots up to the selector switch and back, and the pots to the output jack that are most important. I wouldn't bother trying to use it for very short runs like volume to tone pot links (where you'll probably fit a cap as the link anyway).

    I like this chap's way of doing things with braided wire. This is for a 335 wiring harness, but the concept is the same for the ES-3, just the runs to the switch and jack are longer.



    I used this method to wire my ES-3 kit.

    Lots of other useful wiring guides on that channel.

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  5. #4
    Overlord of Music McCreed's Avatar
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    As McCreed says (though his image link leads to a protected page so it can't be seen by us mere mortals).
    Hmmm... must be something with the way my browser copied the link.
    It was just a photo of the same type of braided shield wire like in the video Simon posted.

    And just saying, I like that guys method of connecting the braid to the ground lug on the switch. Very neat.
    I do a similar thing even when using standard cloth insulated wire. Thanks Simon!
    Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...

  6. #5
    GAStronomist Simon Barden's Avatar
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    It's that Startpage link. It mentions 'proxy' within the link so it's probably not a direct link and you have to know the secret handshake or something to get in.

  7. #6
    Overlord of Music McCreed's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Simon Barden View Post
    It's that Startpage link. It mentions 'proxy' within the link so it's probably not a direct link and you have to know the secret handshake or something to get in.
    Hint: It involves palm tickling...
    Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...

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